I'M BECOMING A REAL WHIZZ AT COOKING the old basmati rice... plus I don't need boil int' bag any more. I've even come up with my own superwhizzy "Chinese pilau" recipe for fried rice. It's NOT pilau, just a Chinese near-equivalent...Here's the recipe.
You will need:
Basmati rice
Paprika
Lea & Perrins Worcester sauce
Pepper
Egg (optional)
Frying oil
Monosodium glutamate (near-essential in my opinion but healthfreaks profess not to like it...)
Light soy sauce
Take a small straight glass drinks tumbler approx 300mls. Fill just under one third full with rice. This will be enough to serve one person.
Add one teaspoon paprika, one large pinch of pepper and one large pinch of MSG to the rice. Fill tumbler with water (you need about 220 mls water to 100mls rice) and empty into a small saucepan. Add two or three generous dashes Lea and Perrins to the water. Cover; put on a high heat until boiling. Once boiling, turn the heat to low and cook for 10-12 minutes. When the rice is done ALL the water will be gone. If you're more used to the "chuck as much water as possible and cook until rice practically disintegrating" traditional British method, don't panick. It won't burn or even stick if you get the time right. At the bottom of the pan there should be no more than a slight dampness. If any water remains it needs more cooking. Once rice is done, turf out on to a plate, add two more pinches MSG and keep uncovered in fridge for half an hour to an hour to let it dry off a bit.
Then, when you're ready, stir fry anything else you wish to add. Personally I love chicken fried rice; but when I have chicken I don't add eggs. Somehow it seems slightly gross to eat chicken and eggs in the same dish ~ know what I mean? Fry the rice on a high heat for about five minutes. Assuming you're not having chicken, egg fried rice is really whizzy. All you do is hollow the fried rice into a hollow or "well" in the pan or wok. Into this "well" crack an egg (one egg per one or two people if cooking for more). Bash it up immediately with a fork as if scrambling and add a couple of dashes Lea and Perrins directly to the egg. This really perks it up, trust me. Allow the egg to half scramble ~ you know by scratting it about a bit as it fries up ~ then quickly fold it into the rice and cook for another two or three minutes until thoroughly done... and presto! ~ perfect fried rice!
... and today's video: American wild pika ...
ps: forgot to make clear... for egg is best added to fried rice WITHOUT additional stirfry (ie remove it from pan)... and the egg, once folded in is best cut up, turned, stirred etc... makes a wonderful integral dish with the rice in little clumps... ideal for the chopsticks-user~!
I tend to agree, the egg doesn't work so well with chicken, but it works better with pork or shrimp.
ReplyDeleteMSG is said to cause cancer, so i try to avoid it. I probably get my share when I'm at my favorite Chinese restaurant, though.
Thanks for stopping by Pole Hill!
You're becoming quite the chef. I always thoroughly enjoy your cooking posts!
ReplyDeleteDoing alright mate. Ever thought of becoming a cook somewhere?
ReplyDeleteGreat video of the alpine pingers.
ReplyDeleteHi Gleds ~~ Good on you for your cooking efforts and recipes. Eating
ReplyDeleteright is so important. You are a man of many talents!! So you are not an ice cream fan. I must admit, I prefer the Chinese Curried Chicken myself.Thanks for your kind words in comments and you explained very well about your addiction and how intellectual rationalization doesn't work. And thank you for understanding about the joke.
I have a grand-daughter living in Geelong and it is about 2 1/2 hours
away from me. It is a large city and a very nice one right on the bay. I have been there many times.
I am glad Mother Hubbard liked it.
Take great care, my friend. Warm
regards, Merle.
I like that you like cooking.
ReplyDeleteNow you've made me hungry at....wait a minute......1:20 am. Hmmm, time for bed.
Your rice sounds great.
i'm going to have a go at this fried rice soon
ReplyDeletei've been cooking rice with this fish-eye method for a while now - that traditional british too-much-water way of cooking it is so rubbish.
i tried brown basmati rice the other day -healthfreakery an' all that - and i was surprised that it wasn't as heavy and splodgy as i'd remembered.... it wasn't that much diff. from white basmati
except more expensive of course. Healthy for the wealthy
just been watching your vids...
ReplyDeletethose pikees are very springy sprongy! and fab exciteable whiskers
:O)
Hi Gleds.. thats easy recipe to follow but i would have to add the egg and leave out the MSG as allergic to it..when I go to Chinese I have to ask no Msg...
ReplyDeleteBtw thanks for your nice comment on about Australia day... take cre look after yourself... Jen
what is MSG exactly cause it doesn't ring any bells at all (being as green as possible).
ReplyDeleteSardonicus: msg CANCER??!? you're joking right?? I thought it was "natural" from seaweed... the eggs/chicken thing was less to do with flavour than the gross idea of eating mother and unhatched baby together... know what i mean?
ReplyDeleteNicole: I'm gettin' better all the time!
Vincent: it's weird I saw a film about the wild west... all these tough cowboys going out on expedition... no women allowed - all men's jobs... ONLY job I was capable of doing out of the whole posse was the cooking... so yeah I would love to be a chef/cook somewhere (I've got no training though...!) I'd like to train to do something I lurve and write to do something else I lurve... then maybe I could write about cooking and make a $$$packet$$$¬!!!
Molson: the pingers nearly pung before I found them...
Merle: ice cream ... I thought you were saying you (or rather your body) wouldn't tolerate it... actually I'm NOT that big a fan of icecream for the teethgnashing pain of it on my rotten old pegs... though I do like HaagenDasz strawberry cheesecake... I'm glad we're OK about the joke I've never meant to cause you any offence, sometimes I feel I've gone too far ... but only afterwards (of course!) ... as for heroin I wish it was as easy to give up as cream cakes or something like that... what it does is presses the button behind every pleasure and comfort we have. So that heroin can to a lesser or too often greater extent replace these... It is a nasty business I don't want any young child reading this blog to think I'm ever trying to imply it is "cool" it never has been - never will be!
ReplyDeleteDebs: the paprika rice/lea&perrins isn't as gross as it might sound of course it all soaks in during cooking... it makes a great plain dish if you only have rice, spices and eggs!
Lettuce: I wonder if you could keep those pykies as pets... imagine them jumping about like that in one's "parlour"... and what a mess they would make with the cut flowers... yeah TRY the rice it's good esp as just egg fried it really isn't overspicey or anything like that... maybe I shouldn't have compared to pilau...
(it does look like a bloody mary when cooking though)
Jeanette: I've heard Australian Chinese is best in the world... also Australian takeout and restaurant food in general... I have a strong affinity with Aus as I have 6 cousins down under
Ooh, this one is classy. I must try it when I get back home. Usually I go to my local Indian restaurant for basmati rice done proper. Gleds, you know I always love your recipies ... remember the junky sausage / bean thing that I tried here in Germany and loved? You even inspired me to come up with one of my own some months back, Marty's Junky Italian Bratwurst -- all the ingredients could be had from any German train station chemist's. -- BTW, recovery is going fairly well.
ReplyDeleteI am a really terrible cook but maybe just maybe i'll try fried rice. It sure sounds good!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm about to make some rice myself...your recipe sounds intriguing. Its nice adding your own twist to recipes.
ReplyDeleteArjan: msg is flavour enhancer E621... not used as frequently as it used to be ... often found in soy sauce... Chinese takeaways use it a LOT ... gives food that taste you can never quite replicate at home... (hence my addiction to it!!)
ReplyDeleteMarty: it's not really pilau rice though this is a dish best eaten as recipe without the stir fry (though it's fine with... it was just designed as a stand-alone dish... so you don't feel quite like you're eating nothing but a third of a small glass of rice and an egg... which basically, condiments aside, is what it is!)
Patti: if you do it exactly as stated I promise it's really nice
Alison: definitely... the paprika cooks right into the rice so even though it starts off looking like ricey bloody mary it turns out quite nice... orange egg fried rice!